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Alrighty, folks... we're home again!
I think a retelling of this "S&P Adventure" is in order here, but will definitely have to happen in installments rather than one gigantic wall of text. Each update will undoubtedly get a million edits after I post it as I proofread and process my way through each day of the trip over the nexxxxxxxxt however many days it takes me to recount this whole journey and tell its stories. But it's definitely an adventure that I want to document and preserve, both for myself, and to share with you all, as it was easily the most life changing adventure I've been on yet. So stay tuned as this thread develops.
If you followed along with my near-daily Facebook updates, you got a pretty solid idea of how it all went down in near real-time, but there were sooo many more details, stories and adventures that there was just no way I could post about them all.
Cliff's Notes:
Sylwia and I spent two weeks riding a pair of BMW F850GS Rally's from Anchorage, Alaska to Portland, Oregon. We spent the first night in a hotel and the last night in a hotel. The rest of the time we bounced around, never sleeping at the same camp site more than once. I ran out of gas... more than once. We saw the Northern Lights, Denali (the highest mountain peak in North America), Moose, Caribou, Elk, Whitetail Deer, Columbian Blacktail Deer, Dall sheep, Bighorn sheep, Grizzlies, Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles. We soaked in the Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs of Whitehorse in Yukon, walked through an EXPANSIVE glacier cave, met, rode with, camped with and broke bread with many AMAZING, truly fascinating people and had one big, spectacular, unforgettable adventure...
Our final route ended up looking something like this: https://goo.gl/maps/AwJhMCngeV5sdPMj8 (click for "interactive")
This journey was, for sure, immeasurably greater than the sum of our 4,000 miles traveled.
So with that, I'll begin the full recap with Post #1 of.... many.
Pre-Trip:
Exactly one month ago tomorrow, and less than two weeks before our surprise departure, Sylwia, my fiancé, and I woke up in Maine to an email from a company some of you may already be familiar with called MotoQuest. That email started with "CONGRATU-FUKIN-LATIONS!"
Okay, maybe not... What it actually said was something along the lines of "Thank you for submitting your rental request", yadda yadda yadda, "your timestamp has allotted you first right to refuse."
Now that's a lot more boring than "CONGRATU-FUKIN-LATIONS!", but to us, that's how it felt!
What we had done is submit a request that's sort of like a lottery... only so many slots and it's a first-come first-served thing.
So with that, we quickly started planning out the logistics. Airfare, first night hotel, camping gear, riding gear, tools, equipment, route, stops, etc... We had to get ourselves and everything we needed from our home in Worcester up to Anchorage, AK to ride two motorcycles over 3500 miles. And all those logistics had to come together in less than two short weeks.
Totally doable.
Now the quickest & shortest way to ride from Anchorage to Portland can be done in just 2,434 miles. A hardcore rider could crank that out in 3-5 days easy peasy, but the shortest & quickest route just wouldn't cut it. Nah. We had two weeks to play with here, and bigger plans than busting it out in one quick shot. We wanted to ride to the Westernmost point in the North American highway system (Anchor Point, AK), Denali National Park, Top Of The World Highway (which, sadly, we had to skip), see some glaciers, some grizzly bears, Olympic National Park... there were a LOT of boxes QUICKLY finding their way onto our checklist. So ~2,500 miles and a few days simply wouldn't be enough. Hell, two WEEKS wasn't gonna be enough!
So the planning commenced... Thankfully most of the riding & camping gear we already had. Only things we ordered were some Frog Toggs, overboots, a new camping tarp, a small tank bag, one bigass duffel bag to jam it all into and... well that was about it!
Eventually we were all packed up and in the air on our way from Boston to Anchorage. Nothing too special about that, but... on the climb out of Denver after our layover we were gifted with a SPECTACULAR view of the sunset descending right behind a BIG but waning thunderstorm. It was stunning. Being a former small-time pilot and closet weather nerd, I was glued to the window. SO cool.
Next stop: Anchorage!!!